Walter Taylor graduated from Yale University in 1935. He taught for several years at Southern Illinois University, Arizona State College, Harvard University and the University of Texas. In 1942, he enlisted in the US Marine Corps and received a Bronze Star with citation; Purple Heart. In 1943, he received a Rockefeller Foundation Fellowship to revise his doctoral dissertation and was later given a Guggenheim Fellowship (1950-51). Taylor was elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (1954) and moved in 1955 to Mexico to teach at the Escuela Nacional de Antropologia until 1958.
Between 1958 and 1963, Taylor served as Chair of the new Department of Anthropology at Southern Illinois University-Carbondale. He worked hard to create an excellent new anthropology department. In 1963, he resigned as chair and accepted a position as Research Professorship until his retirement in 1974. The year before he stopped working, Taylor received the Leo Kaplan Research Award from Sigma Xi.
Altogether Walter Taylor wrote more than 60 publications, some which include:"The Ceremonial Bar and Associated Features of Maya Ornamental Art" (American Antiquity 1941), "Southwestern Archeology: Its History and Theory" (American Anthropologist 1954), "Archaic Cultures Adjacent to the Northeastern Frontiers of Mesoamerica" (Handbook of Middle American Indians, Vol 4, 1964), American Historical Anthropology: Essays in Honor of Leslie Spier (co-edited with Riley, 1967), Culture and Life: Essays in Memory of Clyde Kluckhorn (co-edited with John L. Fischer and Evon Z. Vogt, 1973)
American Anthropologist, Sept 1997 (Death Notices) located at http://www.aaanet.org/an/ob9709.htm
Written by Nikki Akins
Edited by Marcy L. Voelker, 2007